What are you looking for?

Or give our friendly team a call

Our Apprenticeship Blog

Hello! Our blog is a great way for us to tell you what we are up to at N&B HQ and what is happening in the apprenticeship world at large.

It also has a real life account of apprenticeships from our apprentice Jonny, who completed a Business Administration level 3 qualification with us last year.

Happy reading!

June 21, 2016

Class of 2016 Apprenticeship Graduation

We were so proud of all our achievers who graduated at the prestigious ceremony organised by Surrey County Council, ALPS and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) at Guildford Cathedral last week. In front of a huge audience of more than 500 family, employers and training providers, N&B Training had 29 apprentices take part in the event, the largest share of apprentices there!

Jonathan Lord, MP, gave a speech and said that "It was a great honour to be asked to speak at the graduation ceremony. The young men and women were rightly proud of their achievements and it was wonderful to see the warm support they received from their families. I'm delighted that the Government is sponsoring more high quality apprenticeships every year and I am equally pleased to see so many local colleges and employers getting involved. I wish these young people every success in their future careers - I feel sure that they will do very well."

This is the second ceremony of this kind so next year, we're working towards an even bigger representation of brilliant apprentices!

I have successfully completed my Business Administration and Functional Skills qualifications. Unfortunately this means I will no longer be working at N&B Training as it is best for me to launch myself into the significantly large world of business putting everything I have learnt into action which is really exciting. Thankfully N&B, as usual, have been very supportive towards the decisions I have made and I really wish to say a huge thank you to all the team. It has been such a positive experience and as I have always stated in these blog posts, I have gained the most valuable working experience in my life!

So for the last time chaps, make sure to check out all of the apprenticeships available at N&B Training, you can earn whilst you learn!

It's that time of the year where year 10 and 11 students (age 15 and 16) start to decide what they want to focus on as their career. As they contemplate every option, the main focus seems to be A-Levels and university. This is where I come in! I was invited back to my old school to talk to small groups of Year 10 students about the apprenticeship route.

What did I tell them about apprenticeships? The truth - apprenticeships are here for young people to start their career in their desired industry whilst gaining the recognised qualification. The main question that was asked was surrounding the much higher level of a degree, however you can now get a degree through an apprenticeship! So rather than paying all of the fees for university and gaining all the debt, you can get paid to get your degree instead. This is through the level 4, 5 and 6 qualifications. On top of getting paid and not gaining any debt, you will also be gaining a huge amount of experience with a company, therefore upon completing the degree level apprenticeship, you have a good chance of becoming a full-time employee with the company.

One point that I have noticed fairly frequently over the past few months is that a large amount of students don't understand the importance of apprenticeships and how you can do an apprenticeship in nearly anything. There are only a couple of subjects that cannot be completed as an apprentice, for example becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but you can be an apprentice in nearly everything else. So instead of gaining debt, earn the money, get the qualification and the experience, after all, your first full time job is the best experience!

I think my visit back to school was very successful and the students left with a much bigger understanding of the apprenticeship option of employment.